Judaism + Health Care + Politics = an equation you NEVER have to think about in Canada. Down here in Jesusland, it’s an entirely different story. If you haven’t been engrossed in the raging, virulent debate that’s been taking place the past few weeks, consider yourself lucky.
I’m not really going to weigh in, aside from stating that I generally support Obama’s plan. My only hesitation is that I don’t think it goes far enough. But that’s another post.
On the Judaism front, I’m trying to formulate a cogent argument as to why almost all of Jewish thought lines up in support of a socialized health care. For now, I’ll defer to Rabbi David Saperstein who has made the argument that the Talmud itself calls for universal health care:
“by the time of the Talmud 2,000 years ago, [the moral norms of the Torah] had developed into health care systems and rules and requirements to provide adequate health care for all people. Any community that wanted to be considered a moral community had to provide health care, had to provide health care providers. These are not new ideas.”
Rabbi Jesse Paikin 
In Canada, we do often have to think about the health care + politics part of that equation, and there’s no doubt that our system is not perfect. Our system has its share of problems — long wait times for certain procedures and shortages of family doctors to name two. But I have been absolutely astounded by the vitriol south of the border. It seems to me that the knee-jerk reaction of right-wing Americans to anything government-controlled has seriously clouded people’s minds on this issue. Call me a welfare-state commie, but I feel very fortunate to live in a country where the theory and usually the practice of socialized medicine mean that I don’t have to go bankrupt paying medical bills. I know that if I have to go to the ER, I will get the same standard of care as the person in the next cubicle. I hope that clearer heads prevail in this debate, and that for the sake of all its citizens, the US moves quickly towards an equitable system of health care delivery. Americans deserve nothing less.